New York Marriage Encounter honors Lansingburgh couple for having state's longest marriage

Anna May and Walter T. Patrick, Sr. were honored by New York Marriage Encounter for the longest continuously married couple in the state during a gathering at their senior apartment complex in Lansingburgh Saturday. The
Patricks are two months shy of their 76th anniversary. (Charles Sweeney / The Record)

TROY -- A local couple was honored Saturday afternoon with a distinction that took 75 years to achieve.

With only two months to go before their 76th wedding anniversary, Walter T. Patrick, Sr. and Anna May Patrick accepted an award for being the couple who has been married for the longest time in New York State.

The award was courtesy of New York Marriage Encounter, an organization that has promoted and advocated strengthening marriage bonds for countless couples nationwide since the early 1970s.

The pair accepted a plaque honoring them during a gathering which included four generations of their family in the ballroom at their home, a senior living apartment complex on Gurley Avenue in Lansingburgh. The couple has spent its entire life in North Troy.

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"I was in Texas during World War II," Walter said. "That was the only time we were apart."

Walter was waiting to be shipped out, not certain if he'd see his wife and four children again.

"We were all ready at the dock waiting by the ship with all our clothes and gear on," he recalled. "And then it finished. The war ended."

Patrick returned to Troy where he began a career with General Electric as a machinist until his retirement. At 96 years old, Walter was lucid, responsive and visibly pleased to be in the company of a good portion of his family.

All in all, he and his wife have five children, 15 grandchildren and 29 great-grandchildren, with number 30 only a few months away.

Asked about the secret to a long, successful marriage, Walter replied with a shrug.

"We like each other, I guess."

Anna May's advice to young couples starting out in marriage was simple.

"Don't lie to one another," she said. "I don't like to fight either."

The pair met at a place once known as 'Miami Beach' up on what was called Oil Mill Hill. There was a dance hall and a nightclub there, where the two met and fell in love three-quarters of a century ago.

"Miami Beach was basically a pond," said Robert Patrick, Walter's 75-year-old son. "That was the neighborhood swimming hole, so that's how it got its name, I guess. Now there's a filtration plant there."

Robert said his father's two biggest interests outside of his work are what kept him even-headed throughout his marriage.

"Golf and horses."

The award represents the longest continuously married couple in New York State, though Tony Viscusi of Marriage Encounter said a couple in Connecticut has been together for 80 years.

"Marriage encounter started in the early 70s, and we've probably seen close to two million couples," Viscusi said. "What we teach them is a better way to communicate. And as you can see, it works."